Darien, King of Kjeldor Token/Lifegain EDH

Commander / EDH hyped1221

SCORE: 160 | 86 COMMENTS | 20410 VIEWS | IN 56 FOLDERS


June 6, 2024

Quick Update - My playgroup has taken a break from organized play for quite a while now. I have maybe played this deck a few times over the last year. Updates and testing of new cards has not been happening. With that said we are starting up regular weekly game nights starting this month! In the meantime if anyone has found some fun new cards that have come out in the last year or so and you think it might be a good fit for Darien I am all ears. Appreciate you stopping by and taking the time to read this!

Also, almost 160 upvotes and over 20k views. Holy moly! I remember first posting this decklist being super nervous that it would get ripped apart as I was a new player at the time. The community was (and still is) so nice and offered lots of great advice. All of which have helped shape the deck into what it is today. Thank you so much everyone! I look forward to continue to discuss, play test, and upgrade this deck for many years to come.

ANemoAcids says... #1

If you rarely find yourself dropping below 30 life with all that lifegain, in a tokens deck Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant is an excellent add.

December 23, 2018 8:04 a.m.

hyped1221 says... #2

epajula -- Hey there! Lots of ideas here. I have a few of them either in my deck or side/maybeboarded. I ordered a Comeuppance and Marshal's Anthem. They certainly seem like they could be good fits depending on what I'm playing against.

Metachemist -- Hello! Altar of Dementia seems like it could be a lot of fun. So much so I ran and got one and slotted it in right away lol. Looking forward to trying it out! Thanks much for the recommendation!

ANemoAcids -- Heya! Rune-Tail, Kitsune Ascendant looks quite interesting. I change cards fairly often in my deck (I always update my tappedout list when I do) and one iteration focuses heavily on life gain. I think I could find a slot for this in that variance so I ordered one! Thank you for the idea!

December 24, 2018 8:21 a.m.

crabclaw says... #3

Hey man, I still have your list bookmarked for occasional inspiration. I like the changes you've made!

That said, I just looked through again and saw you have a Caves of Koilos in there to ping yourself for damage. Unfortunately caves has W/B color identity and can't be used in a monowhite deck. I originally wanted to do the same, since I have several of those laying around wanting to be used.

Instead, I added in a Deserted Temple, since it can untap a land and give you another use - it's very strong with Ancient Tomb or Tarnished Citadel to spit out soldiers, and can also untap your Nykthos, Shrine to Nyx for some big mana.

Other possible swaps would be the copylands, Thespian's Stage or Vesuva. If you go this route, note that Emeria, The Sky Ruin, is NOT a legendary land and could be copied without having to sacrifice one due to the legend rule.

See here for an mtgsalvation thread on lands and color identity -- https://www.mtgsalvation.com/forums/magic-fundamentals/magic-rulings/magic-rulings-archives/307370-rules-question-lands-and-color-identity .

December 24, 2018 3:32 p.m.

hyped1221 says... #4

crabclaw -- Hey there! Thanks for the kind words! :D

Also thanks for the heads up on that card! I guess since I've seen other Darien decks on TappedOut using it as well as it being recommended on Reddit for monowhite I assumed it was legal. I figured it was along the lines of Blind Obedience being able to work in monowhite. But I read up on the rules and it makes sense to me. I'll slot in a basic land asap and look at getting either a Deserted Temple or a Vesuva. Both look pretty great. Thanks again for pointing that out. I really appreciate it. Happy holidays!

December 24, 2018 7:58 p.m.

crabclaw says... #5

Sure thing, us Darien mains have to stick together. Blind Obedience is a weird one - the hybrid mana symbol doesn't affect that card's color identity, since it is contained in the reminder text of the extort ability, rather than within the rules text of the card. The same thing applies to the 8 other mono-colored cards with extort. As far as I know, that's the only real tricky part about the current rules for color identity.

Happy holidays to you as well!

December 26, 2018 4:03 p.m. Edited.

TheChaosVault says... #6

Maybe run Lich's Tomb? I know that Auriok Champion and the like do its job just as well but you might consider it.

January 1, 2019 5:52 p.m.

SufferFromEDHD says... #7

Scroll Rack alongside that Land Tax gives white a filter it never gets. Alongside Isolated Watchtower it gives white restricted ramp.

January 1, 2019 7:26 p.m.

hyped1221 says... #8

TheChaosVault - Hello! Lich's Tomb certainly is an interesting card. I've never seen it before. I could see it as a way to save me from lethal as most people wait to swing until they have lethal when Darian is out. I may pick it up at some point but I'm not sure I'll slot it in soon. Thank you for the recommendation though! Love seeing cards I've never seen before.

SufferFromEDHD - Howdy! Man do I ever want to get a Scroll Rack for this deck. It's on my wish list with a Mana Crypt and Mana Vault. Maybe once I get taxes back I'll look into getting them. But with three little kids the expensive cards take a back seat (for a while anyway!). Thanks for the recommendation.

January 7, 2019 7:27 p.m.

AnchorCity says... #9

I’m a big fan of including Caged Sun in mono color decks, double the mana and +1/+1 to all creatures is fantastic.

February 25, 2019 9:36 p.m.

butcher234 says... #10

A token life-gain deck in mono-white would sure love the card draw from a Dawn of Hope !

February 26, 2019 4:08 p.m.

hyped1221 says... #11

AnchorCity - I totally agree that it is great card in mono colored decks. It was in this deck for most of it's life. I recently took it out as by the time I got to six mana I wanted/needed to do other things. It almost always felt slow and I rarely took advantage of it. I also ran Gauntlet of Power for a while but there is a lot of white in my meta. Along with the fact that it's a creature heavy meta that went too. Eldrazi Monument has always felt good to get in hand and cast so that one will stay. My cmc for the deck is fairly low and I already run a fair amount of ramp so for the time being Caged Sun will be in the sideboard. Thank you for the suggestion though!

butcher234 - Dawn of Hope has been on my radar for a bit. I've been meaning to grab a copy to try out. It does seem like it could be pretty good!

February 26, 2019 11:13 p.m.

Have you tried running a Divine Visitation ?

April 22, 2019 10:07 a.m.

hyped1221 says... #13

ViolentPlatypus - It's been in my deck since the day it came out. :)

April 22, 2019 2:28 p.m.

pretzschy says... #14

My fellow Darien player, have you ever heard of the glory that is Ankh of Mishra

June 14, 2019 1:08 p.m.

hyped1221 says... #15

pretzschy - I sure have! I keep it in my sideboard for when I'm up against lands matter decks that tend to drop a lot of lands. Don't get me wrong. I could probably slot it over other cards I'm currently running. It's just personal preference not to.

June 14, 2019 3:07 p.m.

WUBRG87 says... #16

You know two good win conditions in lifegain builds are Aetherflux Reservoir and Felidar Sovereign . Just throwing out some ideas for ya.

July 9, 2019 12:04 a.m.

hyped1221 says... #17

WUBRG87 - I originally ran both of those when I first built the deck. I won a few games with each, didn't feel good about any of them, and took them out.

Don't get me wrong. They're great in the deck. It's not how I like to win is all. Just a personal preference. Thank you for the comment though!

July 14, 2019 11:40 p.m.

Asimiir says... #18

Why don't you run Settle the Wreckage in the deck? It seems a good way to get many lands

September 5, 2019 2:12 p.m.

korakin says... #19

Idol of Oblivion and Endless Atlas both seem like good sources of card draw for your colors.

September 5, 2019 3:58 p.m.

hyped1221 says... #20

Asimiir - At one point I did run it. The deck is inherently pretty slow, so by the time I could use it on my own tokens mana wasn't an issue.

Not to say that I shouldn't run it. I'll actually look at slotting it back in fairly soon and give it some more play time (I probably didn't play with it enough to see how it does for me). Thanks much!

September 5, 2019 4 p.m.

hyped1221 says... #21

korakin - Hey there. Idol looks like it could be interesting! It's pretty cheap so I'll grab a copy and play test it soon. I'm currently play testing Endless Atlas (waiting to update my list). So far it's been decent. Not bad, but hasn't blown me away either. Right now I'm erring on benching it. If I do I'll probably give idol a shot. Thanks for the idea!

Funkydiscogod - When I first built this deck almost a year ago I had Lich's Tomb in it. It helped me win one of my first games! After that though the second it was played either it or Darien were removed promptly. It is a pretty janky combo with Darien and I love it. But for the foreseeable future I'll probably not be playing it. Thanks for the comment!

September 7, 2019 10:50 a.m.

SinAffliction says... #22

In a token deck I feel Frontline medic would be good. make your creatures indestructible then followup on main phase 2 with a board whipe. just a thought

December 17, 2019 9:17 a.m.

Mac-n-cheese says... #23

I love your Divine Visitation card, it adds an annoying flying component that opponents have to deal with. I would suggest getting at least 1 Elspeth Sun's Champion for this deck to continue to boost your number of token creatures. Her + 1 puts 3 1-1 soldiers on the field and her -3 functions as a fieldwipe for low level creatures (4 and below) allowing you to swarm your opponent.

December 24, 2019 10:23 a.m.

hyped1221 says... #24

SinAffliction - That certainly is an interesting card. Our play group has become much more board wipe happy over the last few months. I'll probably try slotting it in soon and see how it does. Good idea!

Mac-n-cheese - Elspeth, Sun's Champion is probably my favorite card in magic. I did have it in the first iteration of this deck. My playgroup loves their planeswalkers, so a while back I unslotted her to make room for The Immortal Sun . As much as I miss having her in the deck, Immortal Sun just does so much work against a lot of decks I personally see. If there weren't so many planeswalkers around I would definitely put her back in!

December 24, 2019 3:27 p.m.

hyped1221 says... #25

At long last pulled the trigger and traded for a Mana Crypt and Sword of Feast and Famine! Thalia, Heretic Cathar and Sword of Sinew and Steel are out in their stead.

March 2, 2020 4:05 p.m.